Anindya Sarkar earned his BSc (1979) and MSc (1981) degrees in Geology from Calcutta University; and PhD (1989) in stable isotope geochemistry from the Physical research laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad. After a brief post-doctoral stint at PRL he joined Presidency College, Kolkata as Research Associate (1992). He served as Faculty Member at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad from 1993 to 2002. He joined Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in 2002 and became Professor in 2007.

Academic and Research Achievements: Professor Sarkar initiated teaching and research programmes on stable isotope geochemistry in general and palaeoclimatology, chemostratigraphy and isotope hydrology in particular. He has also developed new experimental techniques in the field of stable isotope measurements. He used stable isotope tools to tackle variety of geological problems. He demonstrated that the winter northeast monsoon was much stronger during the last ice age with simultaneous development of an anoxic condition prevailing in the deep Indian Ocean. His other works include isotope study of dinosaur egg shells to track down food habits, catastrophic climatic perturbations across various mass extinction boundaries namely change in ocean temperature and atmospheric pCO2. He and his students also worked on isotope hydrology of monsoonal rains to trace the vapour transport and causes of arsenic pollution in Bengal basin which suggested that the pollution is neither driven by surface organic matter nor related to any anthropogenic activity like accelerated irrigation process. His recent venture includes isotopic and sedimentological studies of Himalayan foreland sediments which proposed radically different concept on the tectono-sedimentary evolution of these basins during the early stage of mountain building processes. He has published about 50 research articles in peer reviewed journals and mentored 5 PhD and over 60 research students.

Other Contributions:Professor Sarkar has established country?s first National Stable Isotope Facility at IIT, Kharagpur sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology under the IRHPA programme to provide quality isotope data to students and researchers from Universities so that they are not dependent on foreign laboratories and to create trained manpower in stable isotope research. He extensively lectured on stable isotope at Max Planck institute, Swedish natural history museum and Universities at Copenhagen, Tokyo, Tsukuba, Purdue and Bristol. He served as member, Indo-US organizing committee on frontiers of science.

Awards and Honours: Professor Sarkar received the young scientist's Medal, Indian Society of Earth sciences (1985) and INSA young scientist's Medal (1990). He was a JSPS fellow (1998) and INSA-Royal Society Visiting fellow (2004). He received the National Mineral Award (1999). He was visiting Professor, Purdue University and Benjamin Meaker Professor, Bristol University (2010). He is a Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2012).